By Glen Rosales
Special to the SUN

ALBUQUERQUE – Things didn’t quite work out the way the Española Valley cheer squad hoped Saturday during the state cheer competition at The Pit, but the Sundevils, as well as other local teams, Pojoaque Valley and McCurdy, all saw significant improvement from a year ago.

“I think that for it being the last showcase of their season for these kids, that they showed their capabilities,” Española Valley coach TatyAna Quintana said. “They were very prideful in the support that they had. And that’s our biggest success, the amount of support. I don’t think we’ve ever had that many members of the community show up to support us and they appreciated all the love that they received.”

The Sundevils finished fifth overall, one spot up from last season, but their score was a lot more consistent than a year ago. This year, Española scored 85.43 points on its Game Day routine, leaving the Sundevils in sixth place halfway through. They followed up with 76.93 points on the Cheer with Music routine, which was third best.

“Cheer with Music, this year helped keep us up there, which is a shock,” Quintana said. “Game Day had been our strongest of the season.”

So overall, Española finished fifth in Class 4A with 162.37 points, just 1.36 points out of fourth and less than four points behind third place St. Pius.

“It was a place higher than last year, so we’re definitely moving forward,” Quintana said. “Earlier in the season we were able to outscore the four teams that came in front of us. But cheer is a difficult sport because it’s a little bit subjective in what the judges do or don’t like. Sometimes they are looking for something else. And that’s okay. I think our kids had two very strong and energetic routines.”

The Sundevils will say goodbye to 13 seniors, 10 of whom were part of the Saturday’s performance, but Quintana sees that as a positive as the program has been growing in popularity and should be in good shape moving forward.

“My seniors were very fulfilled with their season,” she said. “We are going to be losing some strong athletes. But we’re only losing one flyer and it’s one of the toughest positions when it comes to cheerleading and we still have four of our re-turning kids in the air and that helps.”

Pojoaque Valley

In terms of position, the Elkettes finished the same as last season, in 13th place among 17 teams, but their score improved by 10 points and the overall feel of things is much improved, coach Cassie Martinez said.

“I think we did really, really good,” she said. “I was super proud with our first routine, we hit spot on. It was perfect. Our second routine, we had a couple of falls, so that was a little tough.”

Pojoaque finished with 139 points, but its Game Day routine score of 83.07 was eight-best in 4A. The Cheer with Music score suffered because of the falls, checking in at 55.93.

“Nerves just got the best of us,” Martinez said. “We hit both routines for our families at our showcase Thursday night. I honestly think nerves got the best of us, but that’s kind of normal. I thought the performance went really well. All in all, I feel that we came out and performed and did exactly what we worked for, which was just to feel accomplished and proud of our season.”

The success of the first routine showed the team just what it can accomplish and already has the Elkettes setting goals for next season.

“This gave us the desire to really work hard next year,” Martinez said. “They saw what they could do and they saw the competition for next year. I feel like my team and upcoming seniors are really going to aim to work harder and show up and show out harder. I think it gave them that drive.”

McCurdy

The Bobcats knew coming in that they had their work cut out for them, but they still put on a strong showing, finishing 11th in Class 1A/2A with 132.63 points, which is almost 20 points better than last season when they were 17th.

“I’m incredibly proud of this team,” coach Sabrina Valdez said. “They performed with confidence, energy and heart and truly left everything on the mat. They earned an eight -place performance and although a small deduction moved them to an 11th place finish, it doesn’t take away from what they accomplished.”

What’s more, Valdez is convinced this was a turning point for the team that should do nothing but improve in years to come.

“With such a young team this experience is huge,” she said. “And it sets a strong foundation for the future of McCurdy’s cheer program.”